Whirlwind
If your
girl's kisses
make you
feel
weak in
the knees
she may be
a vampire
- Richard Brautigan
"This is my first office job," Danica says, the overvoice speaking as an unusually attractive girl, her head wrapped under a scarf, crosses the parking lot of the complex. She jogs in the shadow of the building to the entrance, dodging the rays of sunlight. "Last year, while I was finishing up my college degree, I worked as a stocker at a grocery store. Before I had cafeteria jobs at the University of Alaska."
She stares wide-eyed at the camera in the filming room. She is no longer wearing the scarf. Her eyes are a startling caramel color. The hue blends well with her features, but at the same time, her eyes draw an odd emphasis to her. Though by no means are her eyes her only peculiarity: her voice has a musical lilt to it and her dark olive skin reveals a polished porcelain undertone.
"I didn't know about the cameras," Danica admits.
Danica Simovic was hired as a customer service rep for Dunder Mifflin. She was twenty-four, (though in the viewers' opinions, she could easily pass for a teenager.) She had just moved from Alaska, a fact that her boss Michael Scott dwelled on, to distract himself from her intimidating beauty. "What do you call snow there?" he asked, from behind his slack, ogling face.
"Snow."
"So you speak English there?"
"Most of us," Danica said patiently.
"Listen - if you need help finding your way around Scranton," Michael offered, "I can probably find all your anenomes you need. Moose meat, penguin meat: you'd be surprised how many ethnic food places there are around here."
"I've got Sitka deer meat stocked in my icebox," Dwight Schrute boasted, foisting his presence in Michael's office.
"I'm doing fine, thanks." Danica managed to conceal her amusement.
After several more minutes of Dwight quizzing her on the wildlife in Alaska, Danica ventured to the annex. Her phone and laptop computer had already been placed on her desk, but not hooked up. Danica sidled to the floor to examine the jack.
"Are you the new girl?" chirped a girl.
Danica twisted around to look at the speaker. She saw a dark-skinned girl with a bright pink dress and turquoise cardigan.
"Yes," Danica answered.
The girl grinned. She had big, luminously white teeth. "Ohmigod, we're going to be like best friends. I'm Kelly. Kelly Kapoor. Do you like entertainment magazines?"
"Sure." Danica was not quite sure she knew what Kelly meant by entertainment magazines.
"George Clooney is so hot, isn't he?" Kelly perched on her chair, allowing Danica room to back out from under her desk. "Who's your favorite?"
"Johnny Depp."
"Ohmigod, Johnny Depp is so awesome!"
Kelly chattered on energetically about nearly every celebrity who was popular that year. When she paused for a fraction of a second, Danica leapt in.
"Kelly, do you know when tech will set up my phone?"
"In a few days," Kelly said dismissively. "You can look on my computer until then."
She swiveled to the screen and clicked on her Yahoo page. An alert popped up on the corner of her screen but Kelly merely closed it.
"What was that?"
"Just some storm warning." Kelly immediately switched the screen to a more interesting topic.
Danica remained a captive audience for Kelly until lunchtime, with the other customer service rep filling her in on more than she ever wanted to know about TomKat and Brangelina. On the way to the breakroom she passed by the windows. The sky glowed a faint green around uneven patches of clouds.
Danica sat next to Kelly at the table in the breakroom.
"What's that you're drinking?" Kelly asked.
"Water and cranberry juice."
"Are you dieting? I tried the cranberry juice diet once, but I only lost four pounds in one week. Though I never tried it with water."
Danica sipped her "cranberry juice." It was, she had found, a good way to stave off her thirst during the day. She did add water, so the liquid would not look or smell so much like blood. Kelly, meanwhile, nibbled on her dried fruit. She cast an envious eye on Danica's slim figure and vowed to give the cranberry juice diet another chance.
A man walked in. He was about Kelly's age, with raven black hair and blue-gray eyes. He glanced over at the table, then turned to the refrigerator without a word.
Danica became aware of the warm, spicy scent that wafted her way. The scent was unmistakably human, which she could usually ignore with ease, but there was something else. Something stronger. It filled the room as if it had solid volume, slamming into her lungs like a sledgehammer.
The raven-haired man closed the refrigerator, but the smell persisted, tempting her beyond any that she could imagine. She closed her hand over her nose and mouth, leaning her elbows against the table so that her pose appeared less odd. When the man looked over towards her and Kelly, she darted her eyes away from him.
Kelly had suddenly become inexplicably silent. Had she noticed that Danica was trembling like an addict? Danica peered to her side, but the other girl's attention too was riveted on the man.
The man rotated towards them, as polite behavior dictated, though his grimace showed his discomfort. "Uh, did I interrupt something?"
Danica glanced towards Kelly. Kelly's mouth hung open; she was openly gaping at him.
Danica managed to shake her head.
The man shuffled out of the breakroom, careful not to turn his back to the two females.
Then Kelly's chatter pealed out.
"Ohmigod, Ryan is sooo cute."
"I guess." At least one part of the puzzle had been solved. Kelly had a crush on this Ryan and was too shy to speak to him. Danica gulped down more of her cranberry water and wiped aggressively at her mouth, but she could not taste the weak animal blood. That scent filled her mouth.
"Someday, I'm going to get him to ask me out. I've just got to make myself gorgeous and then Ryan will come up to me on his knees and beg to take me out. And I'll play coy at first, because guys don't like girls who are desperate. I'll pretend I have a date with someone else and I'll pretend that it's like this hard choice but eventually I'll sigh and choose him over this other guy who is sooo hot . . ."
"What other guy?" Danica lost the thread of Kelly's plan.
"You know," Kelly stressed. "The guy who's his competition. All girls have one, because guys like a challenge. So I'll have this other guy waiting to sweep me away, so Ryan will have to prove that he's worthier than the other guy . . ."
"The guy that doesn't exist?" Danica asked. Fortunately, she was too bewildered to laugh hysterically or snort in disgust.
"It's just a hint. You know, to add an air of mystery. Haven't you ever had a boyfriend?" Kelly asked.
Danica lowered her hands under the table. "No."
"We should so set you up with someone," Kelly said. "There are tons of eligible guys here."